Learn Hebrew: Acco

An ancient city by the sea.

One of the most fascinating cities in Israel is Acco (), sometimes called Acre. This city presents the remains of various cultures dated back to the Bronze Age; is the home of different religions (Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and the Bahai religion); and was the setting for numerous battles and conquests. In 2001 UNESCO designated Acco's Old City as a World Heritage Site.

Acco's old city is located on a small peninsula on the northern part of the Haifa bay. Theer you encounter the sea waves smashing into the ancient walls; the smells of the fresh fish and the luscious spices; the sounds of the market vendors hawking the best Humus and the refreshing pomegranate juice.

The origins of Acco's name are unclear. It appears in the Bible once in the territory of the tribe of Asher, as one place from which the Israelites did not drive out the Canaanites.

Asher drove not out the inhabitants of Acco, nor the inhabitants of Tzidon (Judges 1:31)

According to the Jewish tradition, when the deluge of Noah's days reached the coast of Acco, G-d ruled: (Ad ko tavo velo tosif) meaning: “Arrive up to here and stop.” In other words, the flood waters did not penetrate the Land of Israel.

Sites in Acco

Fortified Walls - The Crusaders who failed to conquer Jerusalem, conquered Acco in the 12th century and made it the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. They built relatively thin walls around the city to keep it from inland invaders. When the Mameluks invaded the city in the late 13th century, they destroyed most of the city, killed every remaining Crusader and put an end to the Latin Kingdom. The city was left mostly uninhabited for hundreds of years, and was finally conquered by the Ottomans in 1517. It was not until the days of Daher el-Omar (1750-1775) and his successor, Jezzar Pasha (called by the locals Al-Jezzar, 1775-1814), that the city regained its power. In 1750, Daher el-Omar, the ruler of Acco, utilized the remnants of the Crusader walls as a foundation for his walls and also built walls on the seaside to protect Acco from invasion. The walls were reinforced between 1775 and 1799 by Jezzar Pasha and survived Napoleon's siege.

The walls include a thick defensive wall, a dry moat and cannon outposts. Nowadays, travelers may walk on the walls and scout the sea and the city. It is also impressive to take a boat ride and watch the waves crashing into the walls from the sea side.

The Jailhouse: When Dahar al-Omar and Al-Jezzar built the Citadel, they built a jailhouse inside the walls to detain criminals and political deportees from all over the Ottoman empire. Among the prisoners here was Baha'ullah, the founder of the Bahai religion. During the British Mandate, hundreds of the Jewish Underground members – fighting to establish a Jewish State – were imprisoned here by the British. On May 4, 1947, members of the "Irgun" or “Etzel” ( - an acronym for National Military Organization) boldly infiltrated the jail and set the imprisoned Jews free. Three Jews were killed in the operation, and three escaped prisoners who were later captured were put to death by hanging. You can read more about this heroic attempt here.

Knights' Halls: In the days when Acco served as the capital of the Crusaders, these halls hosted many pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. Until recently, the Knight Halls were covered by the floor of the Acco Citadel, which served as a jail during the days of the Ottomans and the British Mandate. Archaeological excavations revealed this complex of halls, which have now been restored.

The Mosaic Shul – A special tourist attraction is a synagogue whose interior walls are covered entirely with mosaic tiles. These millions of tiny tiles were laid painstakingly by hand over a period of 40 years. The mosaics depict biblical scenes and panoramas of Jewish holy sites. Truly an amazing site to behold!

Asher -
A boy’s name from the Bible; "Asher" was one of Jacob's sons, and one of the Twelve Tribes. According to the Bible, the name Asher is derived from the word osher, "happiness" (Genesis 41:50-52).

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About the Author

Shira Cohen-Regev has a Masters Degree from the University of Pittsburgh in Child Development and Social Work. She taught and tutored Hebrew as a Second Language both online and in academic settings. She is currently employed by the Israeli Ministry of Education.

I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!